UKIP NEWS AND NEW GROUPS.

I would like to start by clarifying the position regarding three former UKIP MEPs.

Jim Carver MEP

On Monday 28th May, Jim Carver resigned from UKIP. His decision came out of the blue and was totally unexpected.

I spoke to Jim on the telephone that day, and he was not able to give me any coherent reasons for his resignation. I asked him to do the decent thing and vacate his seat and pass it on to the next UKIP person on the Party List.

He refused, and will now sit as an ‘Independent’ MEP.

Tim Aker MEP

Tim Aker effectively ‘unmembered’ himself. He has not paid his UKIP membership fee since January 2018, and he fought in the recent English local elections for another party, the ‘Thurrock Independents’.

After I became Leader I, and others entreated Tim not to fight for this party but to resign from the Thurrock Independents and fight for UKIP. Tim declined to do so despite my best efforts to persuade him.

For a UKIP member to be a candidate for another party is in clear contravention of Rule 4.3 a) of the UKIP Constitution, which says that ‘the Party Chairman shall revoke the membership forthwith of a member who Joins another political party (whether registered with the Electoral Commission or not).’ The Thurrock Independents is registered with the Electoral Commission.

Regarding the two above: they only hold their seats because of the sacrifice of time, effort and money by ordinary UKIP members and activists who put them where they are.

As MEPs, they enjoy a handsome salary, a daily attendance allowance of €300 per day (tax-free) when they attend the Parliament, and they will eventually receive a pension. In my opinion, I feel these people have no loyalty to the Party and its members. The decent and honourable thing for them to do would be to resign their seats and hand them back to UKIP. They have both refused to take this path.

Bill Etheridge MEP

Recently, with the full backing of the Party Chairman and the NEC, I withdrew the Whip from Mr Etheridge for a period of six months. He may reapply to have it reinstalled in November if he so wishes.

I took the step of removing the Whip from Bill because he defied my instruction to UKIP MEPs not to travel to Russia. Even though Bill had accepted my veto on a previous trip to Russia, he continued with his plans for a second trip without advising me, or the UKIP Delegation Leader, Ray Finch MEP of his intentions.

Bill took part in a conference, in Russian held territory, in the Crimea. Russia is a state hostile to the UK, and I did not feel it was appropriate for our elected representatives to appear to be giving the Russian regime credence it does not deserve; especially at a time when the Russian state is accused of both attempted murder, and murder, on British soil.

Bill, therefore, does not sit as a UKIP MEP, but I hope that he will return to the fold in November.

I am sorry to be the bearer of this bad news, but I believe that the ordinary UKIP members have a right to know my view on this.

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As you will have heard, following an uncontested election, I have been confirmed as UKIP Leader.

I received the backing of all three UKIP Lords, our major donors, our MEPs, our London and Welsh Assembly Members, and Party activists and members from all over the UK.

I would like to thank everyone for their support, and am grateful for the trust and confidence placed in me. I am also extremely grateful that our Chairman, Tony McIntyre and our Treasurer, Sebastian Fairweather have agreed to remain in post to give me their invaluable help.

As I said at the start of the contest, if the election were to be uncontested, I would hold office for twelve months. Therefore, I intend to resign on 13th April 2019 so that a full leadership contest may take place. By then I will have decided if I wish to contest that election or not.

For the next twelve months, I will concentrate on doing all I can to restore the Party’s fortunes. A very good start has been made and the Party is now on a sound financial footing.

However, we need to get UKIP back into the political fight. We have made a very good start with the 554 UKIP candidates standing in the English local elections.

Don’t pay any attention to our enemies who are crowing that our candidates numbers are 75% down on what they were last time. The truth is that instead of 554 candidates, the number would have been zero if you had not all backed me from the 17th Aprilonwards and the Party had disintegrated. Instead, let’s celebrate the 554 and help them all we can.

My role as Interim Leader was to ensure the immediate survival of the Party. That has been done. However, we must move on and progress.

My aim for the next twelve months as UKIP Leader is to restore the Party; financially, organisationally and politically.

I will not make any extravagant promises. We are essentially a volunteer organisation and we have a difficult task ahead; one which will require a lot of commitment and work. But UKIP is needed now as much as ever.

UKIP came into being in 1993 in order to fill a political vacuum. Such a vacuum still exists: for a political party that speaks for ordinary people from all walks of life. One that represents their interests and the national interest.

I think you will all agree there is now a new spirit of optimism and confidence in the Party.

I will keep you informed of the actions I take, the progress we make, and the plans I put in place.

Yours sincerely,

Gerard Batten MEP

UKIP Leader

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A NEW LEADER FOR UKIP

I am pleased to announce that as of 5pm today, our interim leader, Gerard Batten MEP (pictured above), has been elected unopposed as the new Party Leader. I would like to thank all those who have been involved in this election, in particular Piers Wauchope, the returning officer, and the staff at Lexdrum House for all the work that has gone on behind the scenes.

On behalf of Gerard, I would like to thank all those who have given such tremendous support to him and the team that he has assembled around him over the past few weeks. He is currently working hard at building up the membership base, attending public meetings around the country and doing his utmost to raise the profile of the party.

We are back on track!Tony McIntyre
UKIP Party Chairman

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Interesting Idea In Its Early Stages.

You will have read in yesterday’s newslinks that plans are afoot for a Museum of Brexit with the stated aim of telling the story of the Eurosceptic Movement and bringing together “a collection that will recall, for future generations, the story of the struggle for the United Kingdom’s independence”.

The project is evidently in a very nascent stage but you can now read more about the plan on its website and keep in touch via its Twitter feed. Even more importantly, you can find out here the materials those behind the project are seeking which I imagine BrexitCentral readers may be in a position to donate – pamphlets, campaign literature, placards and photographs or maybe unique items or correspondence related to the decades-long fight for British independence from Brussels. Please direct any questions you may have on this front directly to the organisers via email. I should add that while they acknowledge that the final Brexit deal is yet to be signed and sealed, they have launched the project now to ensure that potentially valuable artefacts are not lost before it’s too late.
One of those who has conceived the idea is stalwart eurosceptic campaigner and regular BrexitCentral author, Lee Rotherham, who is Acting Chairman of the appeal to establish the museum. Today on the BrexitCentral website, he puts the idea in an historical context, noting how the EU – insecure about its own corporate narrative – has spent tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on its “House of European History” in Brussels. While the UK’s Museum of Sovereignty might not end up quite as grand a venture, he explains the importance of seeking to preserve “the memories, voices and snapshots of those who for long decades thanklessly campaigned against European integration”. Click here to read his piece.
Incidentally, our Editor-at-Large Matthew Elliott, who was of course Chief Executive of the Vote Leave campaign, was on Radio 4’s The World Tonight last night to explain what he’d like to see in the museum. The segment began 39 minutes and 55 seconds into the programme which you can catch via the BBC iPlayer.
Museum website.https://www.museumofbrexit.uk

On 17th February UKIP was on the edge of insolvency and in imminent danger of being forced out of business.
I launched an appeal and asked our members for £100,000 to so save the Party from closure.With incredible generosity, our members and branches have responded by donating not £100k but the amazing sum of £294,918Money is still coming in and I do not doubt we will raise more than three times the money I asked for.For your information the breakdown of donations to-date is as follows:

Branches = £215,441

Individuals = £79,477

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Total £294,91

Those individuals and branches that donated cannot be thanked enough. They have saved UKIP to fight on.

The legal bill in the Jane Collins libel case.

On 19th March a Court Order landed on my desk to pay £175k by 3rd April as an Interim payment in the libel case UKIP became embroiled in.

With great energy and speed our new Treasurer Sebastian Fairweather put together a plan to raise the money, which he did, and it was paid on 29th March.

This money did not come from the funds raised by means of the current fundraising initiative.

However, we are not out of the woods yet. We still have to maintain our income and manage it carefully. We will also potentially face a second legal bill in the libel case in the months to come. But we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Membership recruitment
If we count the number of completely new members (not counting renewals) since 17th February we have so far recruited 895 new members.

We have halted and reversed the decline in numbers which has afflicted us in the last few years.

We are continuing the £20 special offer for new members until 31st May. So please do all you can to encourage friends and family to join.

Conclusion

Our political enemies have been robbed of the pleasure of seeing UKIP disappear from the political scene. A new optimism and a boost in morale isnow palpable in our branches and among our members.

I would like to thank the tireless efforts of our Chairman, Tony McIntyre, and Treasurer, Seb Fairweather, the UKIP Team at Newton Abbot, Mike Hookem MEP, Deputy Leader, Margot Parker MEP, Deputy Chairman, as well as many others, for their hard work in making this revival possible.

We have much hard work and struggles ahead but now we can have growing confidence in our future.

Thank you all!

Gerard Batten MEP
Interim Leader

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Message from Gerard Batten.

Dear Fellow UKIP Members,

As you will be aware, under the UKIP Constitution there must be a Leadership election within 90 days of the EGM held on 17th February last.

Many people have asked me my intentions and if I intend to run for the Leadership.

As you will know, I volunteered for the post of Interim Leader purely in order to save the Party from what was its imminent insolvency and winding-up.

I am very pleased to say we have now weathered that particular storm and the Party is now back in the black financially – due entirely to the generosity of our members.

However, we are not out of the woods yet and much more needs to be done. A leadership election at this time would cost anything upwards of £30,000, and this is money we simply cannot spare at this time.

Therefore I offer a solution to the problem. I am prepared to stand as Leader and hold office for the next twelve months.

This will give me and my colleagues the time to put the Party on a sound footing financially, organisationally and politically. It will also see us past the date when Britain is supposed to leave the European Union – 29th March 2019.

If the Leadership Election is uncontested then we will spare ourselves the cost of a contest we cannot afford.

After Easter, I will email you all again with an update on the financial situation of the Party (good news) and the reforms I am putting in place.

Yours sincerely,

Gerard Batten MEPInterim Leader

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UKIP’s New Online Store Goes Live.

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Postponement of NEC Elections

Dear member,

The NEC decided yesterday that the NEC elections should be postponed until the summer. The reason is straightforward. Although we are able to run NEC elections now, it is at a cost that we can ill afford.

Internal elections are always expensive: postage, printing and the administration of an election costs the party some £25,000. The NEC was faced with spending the money now to ensure a speedy election, or else making significant savings by combining the costs with those of the Independence magazine. This means putting the election back for two months.

In the summer, the Independence magazine will be posted to the whole membership. Included in the magazine will be details of all the candidates standing in the NEC election and the means to vote for them.

Under article 6.11 of the constitution, the NEC may extend the term of retiring members by six months. The last members to be elected to the NEC were elected on 15th December 2016 so the period of office for those six NEC members may be extended until 14th June 2018. After that date, and until the new election takes place, the NEC will be run with nine of its usual fifteen voting members.
I know that some of you will be disappointed with this, but for the sake of two months it is simply making the best use of our resources.

The leader cannot ask our members to dig deep into their pockets to save the party, unless the NEC is doing everything to control expenditure.

As returning officer, I will be revising the timetable for NEC applications. The new deadline for submission of applications [and I reserve the right to extend this further if I think it proper] will now be 15th May 2018

With best wishes

Piers Wauchope
Returning Officer

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Gerard Talks To Tommy Robinson

Gerard Batten’s Speech Birmingham.

Two Videos of Birmingham protest on Saturday the 24th March

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NEC Applications Invited

Dear UKIP Member

In order to apply to stand as an NEC member, you will need to have registered to the MyUKIP website. Please ensure that you have done this before continuing.

You MUST familiarise yourself with the party rules which can be found at the bottom of the MyUKIP page. There is also a downloadable nomination form. This form must be scanned and sent electronically as a single attachment to your application. You should keep the hard copy for your own records which you will need to provide at a later date. Forms containing corrections will not be accepted.

All nominations will require a proposer, a seconder and eight assenters.

In accordance with the NEC’s criteria, on 19th March 2018 applicants must (a) have been a member of the party in good standing continuously for at least two years; and (b) have held office within the party (as a branch officer or higher); and (c) have stood for public elected office for the party; and (d) have paid before the close of nominations a non-refundable fee of £200. Details of how to make this payment will be shown on the party website at 12pm on 23rd March, when applications open.

A member may propose only one candidate but may second or assent to as many candidates as they wish. In the event that the same person has proposed more than one candidate, only the first valid nomination received at Head Office shall be accepted.

Completed applications, including nominations, MUST be received by the Returning Officer, Piers Wauchope, by 5pm on 13th April 2018. Details of where to send your completed application form will be made clear when you apply.

The Returning Officer will then send out to all candidates a list of those whose nominations have been accepted. The Returning Officer shall then arrange for the printing of the ballot paper.

Kind regardsPiers WauchopeNEC Returning Officer

Gerard Batten interviewed after the public meeting in Gloucester.

A response to the Prime
Minister’s speech in Munich
for an EU security treaty in
relation to police and criminal
justice matters.

Click above for full report.

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A supportive member of the EU parliament for once speaks out.

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Dear Fellow UKIP Member,
I am pleased to announce the appointment of Seb Fairweather as the new Party Treasurer.Seb is a long-term UKIP member with experience as Treasurer for a major Oxford college.

I am looking forward to working with him to get the Party back on a sound financial footing.

I would also like to thank John Bickley, our outgoing Treasurer for all his work and commitment in this difficult role through a very challenging period in our history.

Yours sincerely,

Gerard Batten MEP

Interim Leader

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Tony McIntyre
UKIP Interim Chairman.

Dear Member,

First of all may I apologise for being rather tardy in taking just over a week to introduce myself. I was asked shortly after the EGM in Birmingham if I would be prepared to take on the role of voluntary Interim Party Chairman for a period of 90 days after Paul Oakden, who had been in the position for 18 months, decided to stand down.

I wanted to meet Gerard Batten MEP before accepting the role, and this I did later in the week. I was impressed with his forthright approach and felt I could work with him in the interim period before the result of the next leadership election.

I have been a member of the party since 2006, shortly after retiring from a career in Education. Over the years I have been a branch treasurer, branch chairman, regional secretary and for the last 5 years Regional Chairman for the South West. I have stood for Parliament three times, stood in various local elections and was fourth on the South West List for the 2014 European Elections. I have never been a member of another political party and have made many friends through UKIP in the South West over the years. I look forward to making many more now across the country.

Over the past week I have been talking with the various Regional Chairs to put forward a plan of action in preparation for the forthcoming local elections. We need candidates in place to contest the seats that are coming up in the local election in May. If you would like to stand then please get in contact with your branch chairman. I appreciate that times are difficult for us at the moment but we must turn the tide back in our favour if we are to remain a force on the political map of our country.

Let us revitalise the party behind Gerard over the next few months. Brexit is far from being done and dusted. There are many out there who are working hard to overturn the vote of the people. Spread the word that UKIP is still in place and as determined as ever that we leave the political union that we call the EU.

Yours truly.

Tony McIntyre
Interim Party Chairman

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Messages from Gerard Batten.

UKIP PROGRESS REPORT

Dear Fellow UKIP Members,

I am only able to write to those of you for whom we have email addresses, but I want to update as many of you as possible with how things are progressing.

This is now the start of my third week in the role of Interim Leader, and the last two weeks have been extremely busy, to say the least. I inherited two significant things: one bad, one good.The bad thing is a financial shortfall that threatens the very continuation of the Party.

The good thing is our HQ at Newton Abbot and its small band of dedicated staff led by David Challice. These ladies and gentlemen are the unsung heroes of the Party. Without them, there would be no Party. We should be extremely grateful to them and I thank them on your behalf for all their efforts.

Let me summarise what I have done so far:

Appointments

My first actions were to appoint the chief officers of the Party:

Party Chairman – Tony McIntyre

Deputy Chairman – Margot Parker MEP

Deputy Leader – Mike Hookem MEP

Treasurer – John Bickley (who kindly agreed to remain in post)

Actions to raise money and recruit members

All members will shortly receive a fundraising letter from me which explains the immediate actions I have taken. I am also writing to 20,000 ex-members inviting them to rejoin the Party and initiated a recruitment campaign.

We now have a special offer £20 membership time-limited to 31st March 2018. This is to encourage our former members to rejoin and to recruit new people from among groups such as the Veterans Against Terrorism and Football Lads Alliance. Following talks with me going back some months, the leadership of these two groups have endorsed UKIP to their members who will decide to join on an individual basis.

I ask existing members who paid the full membership fee to understand the urgent need to rapidly expand our membership. We need more revenue and more people. Membership fees, in general, will be reviewed at the next NEC meeting.

Spokespersons

These are being appointed gradually and positions will be limited to the most important areas of policy. I want people with real experience and knowledge to develop policy and speak authoritatively. A full list will shortly be available on the Party website and will be added to as necessary.

Local Elections

I was disappointed, to say the least, that I found we are far behind in our plans to fight the local elections taking place on 3rd May. It is vital that we put up a fight to defend the seats we already hold and to show we are still in the fight nationally.

We need at least 740 candidates in order to qualify for a Party Political Broadcast. We need people to step forward now to be candidates.

We are now putting together aids for candidates consisting of:

A template leaflet that can be adapted to include candidate details.

A centralised call-off system for printing.

A Candidate Guide.

If you would like to be a candidate or support a candidate please contact your local Branch Chairman or County Controller.

I will do my best to keep you in the picture of how things progress and I trust the news will continually improve as we go forward.

Yours sincerely,

Gerard Batten
Interim Leader – UK Independence PartyMember of the European Parliament for London

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UKIP interim leader, Gerard Batten MEP, last night announced the first three members of his new leadership team, saying he was “choosing people with strength in depth” and “who showed a true desire to move the party forward.”

“Tony has worked tirelessly and expertly for UKIP in the South-West of England and brings a wealth of political and people management experience to the role. I am in no doubt that Tony will quickly settle into his new role and start to move UKIP in a positive direction.

“I am also very pleased to announce that Margot Parker MEP has agreed to support Mr McIntyre by becoming UKIP’s Deputy-Chairwoman. Margot brings a great deal of political and media experience to the chairmanship, along with a famously cool head and her sharp analytical abilities.

“I am convinced that Tony and Margot will quickly become a dedicated and formidable team, who will achieve great things in rebuilding UKIP’s reputation and political credibility.

Mr Batten continued, “I also have the great pleasure to announce the appointment of Mike Hookem MEP as my deputy leader.

“Mike is one of UKIP’s most active MEP’s and has dedicated himself to rebuilding the party and achieving a complete withdrawal from the European Union. Mike has exceptional political awareness and the strength of character to aid me in making the changes we so desperately need in our party.”

“I am looking forward to working closely with Tony, Margot and Mike in the coming weeks and to a rejuvenated UKIP that can once again challenge the status quo of the traditional parties.

“In the week since my appointment, we have already taken steps to steady the UKIP ship; reviewed many of the systems and practices currently in place and begun to understand the range of challenges we face moving forward.

“At this stage, each small step forward is a victory not only for us as a party, but also for all the people of Britain who are being betrayed by the LibLabCon political elite.

“It is time UKIP rose to the challenges ahead, and I am determined we will once again be the voice of the people.”

Tony McIntyre, the new Chairman said,

“At the NEC meeting held yesterday, it was agreed that I should take on the role of Interim Party Chairman. As you will know this is an appointment at the behest of the Interim Party Leader Gerrard Batten MEP. I have a great of respect for Gerrard and am humbled to be his chosen person of choice to take on the role. I feel very strongly that UKIP still has an important role to play in the political climate of today, particularly with the members of both the Labour and Conservative parties doing their very best to water down the referendum result of June 2016 as we near the date to Leave the European Union.

“I have been a member of the party since 2006 and have been Chairman of UKIP South West for the past 5 years. I am looking forward to working with the NEC and the Regional Chairmen to stabilise the party after the unfortunate events of the past few months. Where there is a will there is a way.”

Speaking of his appointment as UKIP Deputy Leader, Mike Hookem MEP said, “I am honoured that Gerard has given me the opportunity to serve our great party and our membership as deputy leader.”

“No-one in UKIP is better placed than Gerard to speak with authority on Brexit and highlight UKIP’s message. I will dedicate myself to rebuilding UKIP and reclaim the party’s position as the only credible alternative to the tired status quo of the traditional parties.”

“With the Conservative’s quickly becoming the ‘remain’ wolves in ‘brexiteer’ clothing, and Labour announcing their ‘pie in the sky’ ideas of a bespoke customs union, both main traditional parties have shown their determinations to keep us tied to the EU come what may.”

“It is therefore becoming increasingly obvious that the British public needs a credible political party that not champions a full and complete withdrawal from the European Union, but also continues to put forward new and innovative policies aimed at moving Britain forward.

“UKIP is the only true alternative, and I for one will be doing everything I can to make sure we live up to and fulfil the hopes and aspirations of the British people in the future.”

New deputy chairman Margot Parker MEP, who is a UKIP MEP for the East Midlands, said:

“I am delighted to be part of the new team supporting Gerard Batten, our interim leader. It is time we put the country and Brexit first!”

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Gerard Batten Interviewed By Sky News.

Economist Dr Graham Gudgin leads a group warning against seeking to reverse the referendum result

Brainy Brits Come Out For Brexit

Nearly 40 leading intellectuals have launched a campaign to
back Brexit, demanding an end to patronising “propaganda”
that dismisses “leave” voters as “idiots”.
In the first such intervention since the vote, renowned
economists, lawyers, philosophers, historians, scientists and
experts in foreign and domestic policy warn it is wrong to see
Britain’s intellectual leaders as pro-remain.
The group, which includes those who voted “remain” in 2016, is
led by the historian Professor Robert Tombs and the economist
Dr Graham Gudgin, both of Cambridge University. It also
includes the former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove, the Labour
peer Lord Glasman and the Oxford law professor Dr Richard word of mouth the news of their stand got out and, without a
word of publicity, they suddenly found they were attracting
some super-smart supporters.
“I’ve been surprised by how many people found out about it and
came on board quickly,” Gudgin said. “We would not have
known about them unless we set this up.”
Sadly, some Brexiteer academics were afraid to join Briefings
for Brexit. “One of our contributors said he was told by a
younger pro-Brexit colleague that his professor had told him
that people who voted Brexit were the sort of people who sent
his relatives to concentration camps,” Gudgin said.
For the same reason, some of the authors of essays on the site
will be anonymous.
The group said that seeking to reverse the result — as some
academics would like — “would outrage democratic sovereignty,
cause dangerous and lasting dissension, and make the United
Kingdom an international laughing stock”.

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Hungry for real democracy

I don’t know about you but I’m hungry for democracy. So hungry , in fact, that I am participating in a worthwhile event being organised by our friends at the Make Votes Matter campaign which aims to draw attention to the fact that millions of people are denied real democracy by our broken First Past The Post voting system and millions more have votes that don’t count.

Back in 2015 UKIP, The Greens and the Lib Dems garnered 24% of the vote nationally but only 1.5% of the seats, leaving millions of people unrepresented in parliament. Indeed in the snap general election of 2017 we polled more votes than the DUP who currently prop up the flailing May government. We need Proportional Representation so that seats match votes and every vote counts.

No party has suffered more over recent years as a result of the current voting system than UKIP; this is a campaign that really does matter and has a huge impact on our ability to represent our voters in the future.

Hungry for Democracy is a 24 hour hunger strike from 8pm today until 8pmtomorrowaccompanied by a vigil in Parliament Square whose aim is to keep the pressure on politicians to deliver this much-needed change. You can follow the event live on Twitter using the hashtag #hungry4democracy.
How we’ll vote at the EGMSince announcing the date and details of the upcoming EGM, there has been much interest in how the vote will work on the actual day

Our initial intentions had been to have members vote simply by raising a colour specific voting card, but since that possibility was first mooted I’ve had several emails from members who have a strong preference for a more private method of registering their vote.

With that in mind, I have decided that a closed ballot will now determine the outcome of the EGM. I have made this decision to ensure that every member can feel entirely comfortable in voting whichever way they feel best supports the long term future of UKIP.

However, I’m aware that a closed ballot will bring with it inevitable cries of conspiracy. I will therefore take the following steps to ensure that all members have confidence in the integrity of the ballot.

The ballot will be overseen by the Party Secretary, Adam Richardson.

On arrival, each member will be provided with one ballot paper upon presenting their membership card to the registration team. A record will be kept of how many ballots have been issued.

Four ballot boxes will be displayed to members, empty, immediately prior to the ballot commencing.

Members will be provided with a private area to complete their ballot paper, before folding it in half and placing it into one of the four ballot boxes provided.

Once the ballot has closed, all four ballot boxes will be carried onto the stage, in full view of the members and opened onto tables on the stage.

The count will take place on the stage in the main hall, in front of members attending.

The result will be declared immediately upon the conclusion of the count, with counted ballots still on stage.

Both the Leader and the NEC will have two representatives each to observe all aspects of the ballot first hand.

The meeting will start as planned at 1:15pm. I predict the speaking time for both the proponent and the opponent, which will be apportioned equally, will take no more than a collective hour, after which the ballot will take place.

To emphasise again, whilst this will be a closed ballot, no aspect of it will take place in private or away from the view of our membership, apart from when members complete their individual ballot papers. Ballot boxes will remain in view at all times.

I remain fully committed, alongside the Party Secretary, to delivering as transparent and impartial an EGM as we can on February 17th. I hope this is clear from the steps I have taken above.

Kind Regards,

Paul Oakden.

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UKIP – If we die, so does Brexit!

In an article published recently, it was suggested that now was the time to let UKIP die.

The crux of the piece was this: ‘whilst we should be grateful for everything UKIP has done, they’ve had their day and can no longer deliver anything on Brexit’. The suggestion was that instead, we all leave UKIP and join the Tory party to infiltrate from within, Momentum style!

Sadly, I remember all too well the snap election last year, when UKIP decided to stand down against a swathe of Conservatives around the country to “help deliver Brexit”. The premise was a sound one. Allow May & Co a clear run for a majority that could then deliver what we’d all campaigned for – simple!

What was missing from the grand plan was the realisation that hundreds of thousands of people who believe in Brexit wouldn’t touch the Tories with somebody else’s barge pole! They all had their reasons – tribal, trust or tradition – but ultimately they all realised something that we seemed to momentarily lose sight of. Whatever the problem might be, the Tories are never the solution to it.

The papers over the weekend were riddled with articles outlining the countless ways in which Brexit is going horribly wrong. We had Jacob Rees Mogg breaking cover, and former Cabinet Minister Theresa Villiers saying that the direction of travel over the last year has gone only one way, “towards the dilution of Brexit”.

The Donald commented on the other Theresa’s negotiating skills (or lack thereof) and how he would rightly be much tougher were he in her shoes. Whatever your views on President Trump, he’s a Leader who is clearly willing to put his country first and nobody in UKIP would criticise him for that!

The Sunday Telegraph also raised growing concerns over allegations that civil servants who opposed Brexit are working to force the democratically elected government, led by a weak Prime Minister, into a “soft Brexit”. The government themselves are trying to water down the EU Withdrawal Bill because they’re in fear of getting thumped in the Commons.

As I said, whatever the problem might be, the Tories are never the solution. There is a reason that so many who left us a year ago to join the ‘blue brigade’ are now returning; they quickly discovered that the Tories don’t understand, they don’t believe and they’re in no way worthy of our trust when it comes to delivering our nation’s independence. Let’s not forget, it was them who gave it away in the first place.

Moreover, we now know from bitter experience that what makes UKIP unique is that we really are a refuge for the disenchanted from across the political spectrum. I wouldn’t want to guess how many former Labour or LibDem members we have in our party but I can guarantee it to be a substantial number. You’d have a greater chance of getting them to join the Temperance League than the Tories!

UKIP remains by far and away the largest grassroots organisation prepared to campaign on the ground for a real Brexit, and the kind of separation from the EU that our country voted for and future generations need. UKIP’s involvement isn’t simply preferable, it’s a necessity.

It is blindingly obvious that the time we’ve spent navel-gazing post Referendum has allowed the Remain establishment to take a stranglehold on Britain’s future. We can still save it, and we must.

As somebody who has seen firsthand the brilliance of our party and its members, I can say with absolute authority that the way we guarantee Brexit is not by becoming Tories, but by rebuilding UKIP!

It is clear from everything we read over the weekend, that UKIP must – not should, but MUST – return to the streets to lead the campaign to ensure that Brexit happens. We have much to do to make our party better, more effective, better organised – but if we take our eye off the ball, we will betray the 17.4 million people who trusted us to give them their country back.

We all know the value of the UKIP brand, and how hard it would be to replicate.

Instead, now is the time for anybody who believes in Brexit to come together and work with us in rebuilding the consortium that delivered Brexit; let UKIP sort itself out and develop as it should, with our motivated membership leading the charge in delivering the proper, full-throated Brexit that Jacob Rees-Mogg, Theresa Villiers and others are calling for – and only UKIP’s electoral threat can actually deliver.

Politics seems to have taken a turn for the absurd this week, as the Conservative party, elected by millions to ensure the Brexit result we all campaigned for, staggers from self-inflicted crisis to self-inflicted crisis.

On Tuesday we had the unedifying sight of Boris Johnson having to apologise for ill-advised and slapdash comments that have undoubtedly worsened the plight of a British citizen, currently behind bars in a Tehran gaol. Then we had Priti Patel cutting short her trip to Uganda, only to be sacked for ignoring the most basic rules of procedure.

Not only that, it is becoming clear that no matter how extreme the demands are for the UK to kow-tow to Brussels through the negotiations, on citizenship, immigration, on paying an ever increasing divorce bill, we see Mrs May and the Tories blinking so fast there should be strobe warnings. It’s utter chaos, and the thing we all worked so hard for is being wrecked before our very eyes by a government who don’t seem to have a clue what they’re doing.

As for the other lot; today we had a large number of Labour MPs, who stood clearly on a manifesto pledge to honour the referendum, to end free movement and leave the Single Market, who voted overwhelmingly to adopt Article 50, now working to try and overturn that decision.

Millions of Labour voters, including at least a million who had previously voted for UKIP are being betrayed. UKIP must and will expose them for the backsliding opportunists they are.

Labour are a shower, and the Tories, as so often before, just cannot be trusted on Europe.

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Branch Secretary.

JUST A THOUGHT FOR ANYONE WHO VOTED TO REMAIN.

UKIP. BROMSGROVE.

I would REMAIN because BECAUSE : :

I prefer my country to be run by : unelected, non-British

career politicians, sitting in Brussels, on substantial salaries, generous expenses. and unaffordable pensions.

I enjoy being heavily taxed in order that Britain can send my money to the EU in the form of our national contribution, even though that organisation that has not managed a verifiable audit of its finances for twenty two years, and does not use an internationally recognised system of accountancy.

I haven’t read Yanis Varoufakis’s book explaining German domination of the EU, and exploitation of the euro.

I should have realised that the BBC and press is heavily EU funded to publicise and promote the EU in the UK.

I am happy for Britain’s contributions to subsidise 25 European nations, who would not exist if we and our Commonwealth allies had not saved them from Nazi Germany in W.W.2. at no charge ! !

I like Britain being one of just three net contributors to the EU budget, and for twenty five other states to be net takers.

I prefer to accept Government’s stated figure for the annual cost to the British taxpayer of EU membership of £12 billion, when a body that government consults on monetary matters :

( The Tax Payers Alliance ) has assessed the true total annual cost to be in excess of £120 billion, probably well in excess .

I was unaware that the EU was conceived by secretive, deceitful individuals ( Monnet – Schumann et al ) intent on establishing an organisation that would subjugate Europe under German rule, disguised as democratic and philanthropic, but that was from the outset, a German initiated conspiracy to conquer Europe politically, having failed to do so by military means.

I choose to forget that the entire unelected EU Commission under

Jacques Delour was forced to resign in 1999 for corruption and ineptness. including Britain’s Commissioners : Leon Brittan and Neil

Kinnock.

By accepting the BBC’s propaganda I was unaware of the high level conspiracy within the Tory party in the early 1970s seeking to take us into the Common Market, knowing it was simply a ploy to integrate our nation into a political federation called the EU, by stealth and deceit, via John Major’s signing of the Maastricht Treaty :

I prefer Britain – the land that my great grandchildren will inherit, to be administered under laws made by unelected EU officials in Brussels. acting under orders from Berlin.

If UKIP’s leader Nigel Farage, is consistently disrespectful to the EU parliament and its senior officials, surely this is justified by their

cynical contempt for the British electorate, including : expecting them to accept rule by an unelected Commission.

What Martin Luther did to the Catholic church, Nigel Farage has done to the EU.

Promoted and published by P . McHugh on behalf of UKIP Bromsgrove – printed commercially.